Machinery for assorting pieces of leather



I H. P. PAIRIIELD. v Machinery for 'Assorting Pieces. of Leather.

No. 224,005. Patented FIeb. 3,1880.-

wihesse IFF/EJ11EIF.

ojl ls w w Z N,PIEYERS, PHnTO-QTMOGRAPHER. WASHXNGTON. D C.

. UNITED STATES PATENT Enron,

HADLEY P. FAIRFIELD, OF WVEST MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINERY FOR Assoa'rmc PIECES OF LEATHER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 224,005, dated February 3, 18 80.

' Application filed November 18, 1879. v

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HADLEY P. FAIRFIELD, of West Medford, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Machines for Assorting Pieces of Leather, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

. This invention relates to a machine for assorting pieces of leather as to their thickness, and is especially applicable in the manufacture of boot and shoe heels by machinery.

It is common in the manufacture of heels to make the separate lifts of two or more pieces of sole-leather, such heels being very much cheaper than those in which the lifts are of one piece, for in the so-called pieced heel it is possible to utilize sole-leather which otherwise would be wasted.

In the manufacture of pieced heels the pieces are pasted together; and it is the object of this invention to assort such pieces of sole or other leather as to thickness, so that pieces of uniform thickness may be selected tobe placed together to be sliced up for heeI Iifts.

In this myinvention I have provided a platform or table, upon which the pieces of leather are placed. In front of the table, and having its periphery flush with the surface thereof, is the lowermost of a pair of feed-rollers, and above the said lower roller is a smaller roller, the periphery of which is so placed with relation to the periphery of the lower roller as to leave a tapering passage between the two rollers, or a passage which at one end of the rollers is wider than at the other end. This placing of the rollers enables the separate small pieces of leather to be moved along on the table in front of the assorting feed-rollers until they come opposite a portion of said taperin g space, where the two feed-rollers will engage them, when the pieces will be seized by the rollers, carried between them, rolled, and discharged into the proper one of several boxes in front of the rollers, each piece in that way being dropped into the proper box, according to its thickness. The upper feed roller rotatesin a gaging-shield, which, besides actin g as a gage for the leather being moved along the front of the rollers, also prevents the fine 'gers of the operator from being caught.

Figure 1 represents,in front elevation, a machine provided with my invention, a part of the platform or table and frame-work being broken away; Fig. 2, an end view thereof; Fig. 3, a section on the line 00 x,- andFig. 4, a diagram, illustrating the peripheries of the two feed-rollers in their relation each to the other, and showing the taperingspace between them. i

The frame a, of any proper shape, has at its upper portion a platform or table, 1), upon which are laid the scrap and other small pieces of leather which it is desired to assort according to thickness. This frame has suitable boxes for the journals of the lower feeding-roller, 0, driven by a belt on pulley d, or in other suitable manner, the periphery of the said roller 0 being substantially level with, or but a little higher than, the upper surface of the table b. The upper feeding and assorting roller, 6, has its journals supported in journal-boxes f, made vertically adjustable by means of the adjusting devices, (shown as screws, g,) extended through the uprights h, and the said boxes are prevented from rising toofar by the stop-screws i. By adjusting these boxes one higher than the other the distance between the peripheries of the rollers from end to end may be made different, so as to leave a tapering space, which I have lettered m in the diagram, Fig. 4, wherein the line 0 c is supposed to represent the periphery of the lower roller, 0, and the line 6 e the periphery of the upper roller, 0. This roller 0 is placed and rotates within a gagingshield, 70, made as a tube with its under side cut away, as is fully shown in Fig. 3. This shield, which surrounds, but does not rotate with, the roller 6, and which is located above the lower roller, 0, acts, by its side or edge 2, as a gage or stationary surface, along which the edge of each piece of leather maybe moved from that end of the rollers farthest apart until the piece comes to that portion of the tapering space where both the upper and lower roller will act upon and draw it between them. In this manner each piece of box receiving pieces of a thickness different from that of the adjacent boxes.

Sole-leather is very solid; and to prevent the small up-per roller, 0, from springing upward I have placed over the shield and roller acrosspiece, m, adjustable With the roller and boxes, and upon the said cross-piece l have placed several adjustable struts or braces, 12, which extend through openings in the top of the shield and bear upon the upper side of the roller 0 at intervals.

The shield prevents the fingers of the operator being caught between the rollers.

The upper roller has a pinion, 0, which is driven from the pinion 19 of the lower roller.

This machine might be employed for assortin g other things than leather of different thickness.

This apparatus will be employed to assert, as to thickness, pieces of leather to be built up into heel-piles to be subsequently cut into heel-lifts of suitable thickness on machines adapted for such purposes by Chas. \V.G1idden.

' -I am aware that the feed-rollers in machines for operating upon leather have had their journals supported in adjustable bearings.

I claim 7 1. In a machine for assorting pieces of bined with a series of boxes or receptacles at the rear of the said rollers, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The lower roller, 0, combined with the upper roller and its guard-shell 70, to operate substantially as described.

3. The lower roller, 0, upper roller, and guardshell, combined with the struts or braces to prevent the upper roller springing, substantially as set forth.

4. The table a and upper and lower rollers. adjusted with relation to each other as described, to leave a tapering space between them in the direction of the length of the rollers, combined with a series of boxes or receptacles at the discharging side of the rollers, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof Ihave signed my name to this specification 'in the presence of two sub scribing witnesses.

' HADLEY P. FAIRFIELD. 

